ngl it blows my mind sometimes that i started reading the manga early enough to be able to snag this canon url for this sideblog. hoping to get back to putting it to good use soon. thank you everyone for following! currently just one person running this sideblog, and real life is very exhausting, so I’m planning to focus on reblogging more content to this blog once the first cour of season 1 of the anime is done. thank you for your patience!
Everybody's watching him, but he's looking at you.
SPYxFAMILY, Chapter 95
(눈_눈")
Loid x Yor
Ultimate Good Dog Left Side round 2
a Bunnyor edit I finally finished in honor of Bunny Day last week (08/02 – Ba-Ni)
RECENT SPYXFAMILY NEWS!!
- March 25th marked the 4th anniversary of SpyxFamily’s publication!
- The 11th Volume Cover was announced and features Ewen Egeburg (left) and Emile Elman (right)
- Spy x Family Season 2 is confirmed to premire in October!
- The teaser key visual, title and release date for the film have been released: Spy x Family CODE: White to have a theatrical release in Japan on December 12/22/23!
A mini character analysis on Twilight/Loid/[redacted]
As much as I am a tiny bit sad that Loid is still not having that reflection I want him to have after the last arc, I think I will have to remind myself something I posted somewhere else:
“The problem is, Twilight is inching towards his hidden self, [redacted], instead of running towards being ‘Loid’. As much as we want to believe that [redacted] is closer to ‘Loid’ in nature, and that he could have become ‘Loid’ if war didn’t happen, ‘Loid’ is still a work persona created by Twilight to complete Operation Strix. This persona allowed Twilight to ‘love’, but it is also a constant reminder that it is a facade. ‘Loid’ was a middle ground for Twilight to get back in touch with [redacted]. But now it has become a battleground where Twilight and [redacted] are having a standoff.”
I’ll be as patient as I can be.
(Manga spoilers ahead: and an analysis of ch.77)
Most liked psychiatrist in berlint general
Made an impulsive purchase at Wal/mart today while getting a Mother’s Day card since my parents were out and I’m v happy 🥹 would have gotten more but these were all that were available. SO HAPPY to finally have some physical manga and it’s for SXF 💘
Update on my sxf manga collection!!! Parents are on vacation again, so had the chance to take a mini road trip. I had to visit two different B&N and drive about an hour each way but I was able to get volumes 4, 5, and 7 today!
Yor still evades me. Apparently Volume 3 is out of stock everywhere and needs to be reprinted. Someday I’ll bring her home!!! 😤
But other than that I’m extremely happy with how today went!!! 🥰
Update: Spent the weekend with some friends and was able to stop at a B&N on my way home that had Volume 3!! :D so my sxf manga collection is currently complete of what’s available atm in English! Yay!!
The English translation of Volume 8 released today and I was able to get it!!! :D I’m very happy and relieved after 2 hours of near-straight driving after work. Yay!!
I was able to get Volume 9 in English today! :D Yay!!
I don't know what the fandom's general consensus on Twilight thinking he can take advantage of the situation is... but I actually like that we saw that. As in, I liked the depth of the writing behind it.
I believe in the "anything goes in war" thing - that doesn't mean I excuse the atrocities committed in a war, but that I believe that when pushed to such an extreme situation as a war, humans can lose all sense of empathy and understanding, even the best of them.
And this is what has been happening with Twilight. He went through a war as a kid, and in the ten years he's been a spy, his life has been constant fighting in order to put an end to a cold war. That much he understands, so to him taking advantage of an innocent person's feelings is an acceptable line to cross.
This episode was basically the crux of what's been happening up to now from Twilight's perspective; he's been using Anya and Yor, and though he does it for a very noble cause, to create a peaceful world where children can be happy, he still needed a realization of what it actually means to use someone's feelings.
What he doesn't understand though, is his own feelings. He doesn't have to be romantically involved with Yor in order to keep their marriage - and thus, Operation Strix - going. At the slightest, tiniest hint that Yor may have romantic feelings for him, he immediately puts his spy mind to work and tries to rationalize the fact that he wants to pursue a deeper relationship with her, not For The Mission, but for himself. And thus, instead of simply reassuring Yor that he doesn't want to divorce her, he goes fifty extra miles and offers to make their relationship real. When Yor never explicitly said she wants that. He just painted the narrative the way he wanted.
Per his own thoughts, he tries to "take advantage" of Yor's feelings, telling himself, once again, but this time in a much more negative sense, that it's for the mission. This isn't fun and games anymore. This is him truly attempting to cross a very unacceptable line.
But the narrative is mature enough to immediately punish him for that. Up until now, he's been more honest with Yor than he's ever been in any relationship he's been in for the sake of his missions. Now he tries to pull Yor into a similar lie... and the story doesn't allow him that. He literally gets his sense kicked into him.
And I like that. I like that we were allowed this glimpse into how dark and manipulative Twilight can be, For The MissionTM. They could very easily skip his entire character development and be like "Well he has love in his life now, Anya and Yor fixed him I guess" but no. They put his flaws in open display for us to see, and give him a fair comeuppance for them.
He cannot grow if he doesn't realize and accept his flaws. And with this happening, he was given the chance to realize he got too cocky and acted rashly. He's still got way to go before he realizes he did it for his own benefit... and I wanna see him hate himself so much when he does. I want to see Yor openly sharing her feelings and him politely suggesting they keep their relationship as is (and finding an excuse for that), because if he does take it to the next step then he'll be getting something to his benefit out of a situation he lied profusely to get to. I want to see him understand what it really means to take advantage of someone's feelings, and feel disgusted at himself for trying to do it, not for the sake of the mission, but for himself.
It's a way for him to truly grow and allow himself to be an actual person with feelings, and realize that the lines he crossed may have helped maintain the peace, but they were still horrible things that the fear of a war pushed him into committing.
So anything may truly go in war - but it's after the war that we realize just how horribly much that "anything" can include.
(Anime only fan here, don't spoil me for the manga)
PRODUCTION PHOTOS FOR MUSICAL SPY X FAMILY!!!
This seems like the production photos for one cast, so there might be more to come with the second cast.
I've also seen pictures of the set model, which looks so cool! Nice to see all the props and set pieces since it hints towards the chapters/episodes the musical includes.
Because I won't be able to see this in person, I will be living through these photos and any clips they release. The theatre nerd side of me is going absolutely crazy about this!
Back on my TwiYor brainrot shoit again .😅 We really need Yor using her stealth to spook unflappable Twilight more. I know he's stressed enough as is, but it's too funny.
HEY! FELLOW AO3 AUTHORS! STOP DOING THIS!
idk how else to illustrate this than making a fake, unpublished example fanfic —
STOP DOING THIS! PLEASE!
POST YOUR ONE SHOTS SEPARATELY! ESPECIALLY IF THEYRE FOR DIFFERENT FANDOMS/SHIPS!
***Tags selected randomly for making a quick example***
Stop posting random one-shots into one work. Stop making Chapter 1 a Table of Contents. Stop tagging multiple pairings/fandoms/additional tags etc when you haven’t even POSTED the chapters they would apply to!
This spams tags and 9 times out of 10 I avoid these fics on sight and don’t even bother digging through the fic to see if the oneshot is something I won’t even want to read.
These fics should be reportable for spam if they aren’t already.
I’ve started completely muting authors on sight for this now because I’ve personally had enough.
About Yor: she isn’t dense, but most likely indoctrinated by Garden
So I wanted to address this for a long while now, because I’ve seen one too many posts talking about Yor like she’s just an aloof assassin who doesn’t care about things outside her direct environment, which is why sometimes she says dense things.
I’m well aware that she’s a fan favorite so people don’t mean her harm, yet I think the whole story actually hints at way more than her being dense, especially considering her background and who she still works for.
In other words, since Yor was trained but also half raised by Garden’s leader, the Shopkeeper, it’s likely that, considering how they operate and what they’re about, they instilled in her a conditioned dependency since childhood or teenage years that would make her unable to learn things on her own without asking for their opinion, making it very hard for her to turn against them ever.
Want a striking example? Her encounter with Melinda Desmond.
Not only did she not know who Melinda was (but I mean, that at least could be understandable)…
…but she also didn’t know what a First Lady is.
Sure, it’s funny on first glance, but after thinking about it, what does it betray? That Garden probably made sure over years Yor would never get the slightest basic info and understanding on what politics of this country are all about. Because if their strong soldiers start to get opinions of their own, then they could start disagreeing with Garden and turning on them. So, “let’s prohibit people having free thinking, so that they can remain good little pawns” as we “fight for peace in our country”.
In fact, for Yor, until a short time ago (when she met Loid and Anya), all she did was thought and decided for her by Garden and, to this day, she still voluntarily asks them for their agreement when she opens up her close circle little by little: she asked them if it was okay to marry Loid and then she asked them if it was okay to befriend Melinda.
To be honest, that’s a scary ass thought process to envision, when Yor’s an independent working lady well into her 20s, but this shows how deep Garden’s indoctrination runs in Yor, since they got hold of her as a child/young teen.
Another striking example is the way she always describes her job, in an almost childish way. Her nickname “thorn princess” aside, I always found it interesting that Yor’s aware she’s an assassin but she isn’t morally anguished at all about killing people and never mentions or distinguishes any grey area in her missions. In fact…
… it’s all in black and white and she clearly thinks that the people she kills are all evildoers (which as we saw in the recent arc with the Red Circus isn’t always the case and begs the rhetorical question “why does Garden get to decide who’s evil?”), therefore “she’s not doing anything wrong”, which also pretty much betrays how she was pushed into it.
Long ago, Garden probably baited Yor with Yuri’s protection and told her that, since they’re “about peace”, Yor’s work would just help them to “fight against evil”. As a child, she wasn’t mentally fit to understand the deeper implications and then she was mentally conditioned to always do and think like Garden tells her to, which promotes this systematic childish description of her assassin’s job.
Finally, please take notice of the Shopkeeper’s reaction the first time she tries to argue about her work, in the ship arc:
Enough said, Garden’s awful. I’m sure there are more examples throughout the story, but I now want to talk about future character development.
After all, since the story obviously calls for Yor to ditch Garden, to protect what’s actually important to her (Yuri, Loid and Anya), we actually do see her changing little by little so far, thanks to her living with Loid and Anya. Her coworkers quickly mentioned that she’s more lively ever since she got married and the ship arc overall emphasizes that her family is starting to become more important to her than her job, so there is high hope for Yor. :D
Additionally, while she’s still far away from noticing that Garden mentally drove her into a corner, she now openly voices her concerns that “she’s not normal” but that she wants to understand why in order to learn how to change.
To be fair, fighting against indoctrination is tough and takes time so I’m very proud of her for slowly realizing that she ought to decide for herself from now on. :D
TL;DR Yor is not dense. She was indoctrinated as a child by Garden and can only (for now) see the world through the filters they taught her.
Ironically enough, the only character who knows about her real job and could, thus, notice that Yor isn’t being critical about Garden…… actually can’t because she’s a four year old who is too young to understand that Mama’s job is wrong. Well done, Endo-sensei!
Do you know if Twilight's cover includes a dead wife or a divorced wife? The translation I'm reading says both things at different times, and I'm not sure which one it actually is.
Twilight appears to be using either explanation whenever it is most convenient for him.
In Chapter 2 alone, he uses both cover stories.
First he uses the Dead Wife story with Yoru when he first meets her.
And then he uses the Ex-Wife story at the coworkers’ party.
And it makes sense to me that Twilight would use both whenever convenient to get the most sympathy out of people, or to have an easy explanation.
For instance, at the office party, Twilight didn’t even mean to say he was Yoru’s husband – he was just delirious and got his story and hers confused. The divorcee story was a more believable lie for why Yoru kept her marriage a secret than Twilight simply having a dead wife from a prior marriage.
The site that I use to read the manga is the English version of MangaPlus by Shueisha, which is the official publishing site for the manga, so I have faith that both of these translations are accurate.
(This site is free and has a free mobile app, so if you’re not using it, I highly recommend it if possible!)
TL;DR Twilight uses both the Dead Wife cover story and the Ex-Wife cover story whenever it is convenient.